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ON THE RISE

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Mark Moran / The Citizens' Voice
Penguins' Cody Wild (6) tries to move the puck away from Hershey's Garrett Mitchell during a game at the arena.

WILKES-BARRE - People in pro hockey talk a lot about depth.

When players get injured, traded or lost on waivers, it's important for a team to have the roster depth to be able to replace them.

But this isn't a video game. The names on a depth chart refer to actual people.

In the Penguins organization, depth is Cody Wild and Reid McNeill.

When the season began, McNeill was 17th on the Penguins' defensive depth chart and Wild wasn't even listed. Only the top 12 - six in the NHL and six in the AHL - play on any given game night. It would take a long string of injuries and transactions to get McNeill or Wild into Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's lineup, let alone within sniffing distance of Pittsburgh's.

So McNeill and Wild went to work every morning knowing the skill they'd need most that day wouldn't be skating, shooting or stick-handling. It would be patience.

"In pro hockey, although it always seems like a huge depth chart, you tell them, 'There's trades. There's injuries. There's call-ups,'" coach John Hynes said. "There are going to be a lot of situations where they're going to get an opportunity to play."

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Wild, a fourth-year pro out of Providence College, came into Penguins training camp as a depth player last season and ended up playing 51 games before all was said and done.

He was hoping for a similar set-up this year, but the trickle-down effect of the NHL lockout made AHL jobs hard to come by and the Penguins had no room for Wild.

"I wanted to come back, but it's a business," Wild said. "They had draft picks and guys they wanted to sign."

Wild accepted an AHL training camp tryout in Hamilton and played a couple of early season games there but ultimately was sent to the ECHL's Wheeling Nailers. He put up big numbers - six goals and 20 assists in 35 games - and waited patiently.

"The lockout was supposed to end in December," Wild said. "It was supposed to end all these different times and it never did. I was thinking it wasn't going to end and I was going to be (in Wheeling) for the year. I just had to keep working and control what I could control. I obviously can't control the lockout."

Eventually the lockout ended and the Penguins signed Wild to an AHL contract Jan. 16. He's back in his familiar spot as a depth defenseman, playing only one game since signing but taking special care to remain positive while he waits his turn.

"There are guys that can be negative and tear a team apart and it's all about them. That's not me at all," Wild said. "I look at the big picture. We're here playing a game we've all grown up playing. This is better than any job I can think of. I try to come in with that attitude."

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McNeill needs to display a different kind of patience as he waits his turn.

He's a 20-year-old rookie who was a late bloomer in junior hockey. His development is going to be a long-term project and the Penguins have told him as much.

"I knew this was going to be a transition year for me," McNeill said. "I just wanted to make a good transition and work on my game. I wasn't worried about jumping up the depth chart as much as some guys were."

The development process started in Wheeling for the 6-foot-4, 208-pound McNeill. He's played 27 games for the Nailers, logging as many as 35 minutes some nights, and scored his first pro goal Thursday.

McNeill was called up to Wilkes-Barre last week as the organization's defensive depth chart was shuffled by injuries but was sent back to Wheeling on Wednesday without so much as playing a game.

Such is the life of a depth defenseman.

"I know it's going to be a three-year process. I'm excited. I'm looking forward to that," McNeill said. "There's no better organization to do it with. I'm ready to put in the hours and climb my way up."

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